Long time, eh?
I would like the thank all forty of you who reviewed! Wow. Night Strider, Pandoora, Dark Hope Assassin -- you three have always been so helpful to me! --hugs-- Really! I don't know where I would be without you. And everyone else -- same goes for you. You are AWESOME! Thankies, and I hope that you enjoy...
High School Reunions
Chapter 3
Shades of Crimson
Bulma heard her cell phone ringing from her purse and knew instantly that it was ChiChi -- most likely standing on the front porch with the cordless phone in her hand, trying to hide herself from the men laughing from the kitchen.
Bulma pulled her phone out of her purse and sighed, "Chi?"
"You okay, babe?" ChiChi's voice sounded quite and smooth.
Bulma smiled sadly, ChiChi could almost feel her grief from the other end of the phone.
"I've been better." Bulma said softly, and then she frowned, "I should have told him years ago, shouldn't I have?"
"Bee, that's none of my business."
"If I would have told him seven years ago he would have been pissed -- but nothing like the pissed he's going to be when he finds out now."
ChiChi laughed and shrugged, "He'll understand."
"Vegeta?" Bulma laughed, "He's not the understanding type... I mean, he has every right to be mad at me. Hell, I'm mad at myself for being so damn selfish and moody and angry."
ChiChi wasn't sure what to say, Bulma was more talking to herself than her anyway.
"Chi, has he changed?" Bulma's tone had changed. Her voice was soft and sad, curious and sweet.
"He's different, but he hasn't changed." ChiChi said, almost thoughtfully, "I mean, he's still moody as hell and aragont, he's ego's only gotten bigger, if possible." ChiChi laughed, "But... he's more mature now. A little taller."
Bulma laughed, choking back on a sob.
ChiChi smiled, "Face is the same. Dresses in suites now though. Like you, Bulma."
Bulma looked down at her pinstriped business skirt and white blouse with a small laugh, "Does he still smirk?"
"Yes."
Bulma nodded, "I always thought he smirked for me."
ChiChi's heart broke hearing Bulma's voice, "He hasn't dated seriously since you two, though."
Bulma laughed, "I screwed him up more than enough for that."
ChiChi laughed, "Well you did break up with him and then accuse him of cheating afterwards."
Bulma laughed again, "I was a little moody Chi, I was pregnant for God's sake."
ChiChi nodded, "And stubborn, and you knew that..." ChiChi didn't finish her sentence, knowing that Bulma already knew what she was going to say, and her blue haired friend probably didn't need, nor want, to hear it in her state.
"Bee, you'll be alright?"
Bulma smiled to her self and nodded, "Yes Chi, I'll be fine. I'll send Juu to get Trunk's in the morning. And I'll bring him back before I leave for Denver."
"Alright Bulma, I'll see you then."
"Alright Chi. Later, love yah."
"Love yah too, laters."
She tucked a lock of her behind her ears and hummed happily to herself.
She was sitting on the couch waiting patiently for her next soap opera to come on, filing her nails and snacking on a bog of chips.
The front door open and one of the maids came in, Marron smiled brightly as the maid handed her a stack of mail.
"Oh Loretta, be a dear and turn to heat down, it is so hot in here!"
The woman nodded in Marron's direction and made her way to the thermostat.
Marron grinned down at a clothing catalog and flipped through the remainder of the junk mail, until her eyes landed upon an envelope, return address was to ChiChi.
The maid looked over Marron's shoulder from behind the couch and smiled, "It's a wedding invitation, Miss Marron."
Marron gasped, "I guess ChiChi's getting remarried!" she proclaimed, ripping the envelope open and then quickly reading the invitation over.
"Wow, she's remarrying the same guy she's been with, like, seven years or something. Wow. It's going to be a reunion. I haven't seen any of my friends from high school in forever!"
Marron's smile faded as she read the part about bringing a date. ChiChi had put three exclamation points there. Marron frowned, she probably was curious as to this mysterious, rich, older guy she had been living with the past couple of years was. Marron guessed that she was the source of some of their rumors.
"Wow. This is short notice." Marron mumbled with a frown. Then her eyes lit up, "Hey, Loretta, Do you think Henry will want to come to a wedding with me?"
The plump woman shrugged and smiled, "Well, he wouldn't want you going with anybody else."
"True." Marron said with a small shrug and then gasped, "Ahk! Loretta, look, we missed the beginning of our soap!"
ChiChi hung up the black cordless phone and sat back down at the table, politely asking if anyone needed more tea.
Goku jumped at this and ChiChi stood back up and refilled his small glass.
"Who was that on the phone?" Goku asked cheerfully, watching his cup fill up with tea.
ChiChi glanced worryingly across the table as Vegeta read an article in the paper about Goku's dojo, that ChiChi guessed Goku had passed to him proudly when she had been on the phone, and the short bald man sipped his tea.
"Bulma." ChiChi said casually. Turning her eyes downcast and taking a seat at the table, "Just saying hey."
Vegeta's chest tightened at the mention of her name. He hadn't heard it aloud for sometime, and hearing it so casually from her best friend shocked him a bit. ChiChi knew their history, probably better than anyone besides himself and Bulma. She was the woman's best friend, and woman have a tendency to discuss things like these.
Goku looked over at his wife, a little shocked himself. He knew not to mention Trunks, but he didn't quite know what else to say.
"Is she good?"
It was Vegeta who had spoke. It sounded strange, the way his deep voice pronounced the words; slowly, almost unnaturally. It shocked everyone in the room.
ChiChi smiled up at him, feeling the atmosphere becoming awkward, "Yes. She's fine. A little stressed about work and everything, but you know Bulma."
Vegeta nodded. Yes, he knew Bulma, but he didn't know her. Not anymore.
Goku smiled, "She lived in Tulsa."
ChiChi glared at her giddy husband and frowned at his ignorance and easy way to just jump into the conversation this way.
Krillin sat down his tea glass, breaking the silence of the room momentarily, and then he smiled, "Well, it's nice down here."
"Yes." ChiChi smiled, "It's wonderful here. We love it."
Juu knocked lightly on the door. A small frown had gathered at the corner of her mouth as she stood infront of ChiChi and Goku's front door step. Bulma had told her about how she had gone to pick Trunks up last night and how her ex boyfriend had been sitting at the kitchen table.
Juu didn't know all the details, but she knew enough -- Bulma and her ex split after high school, they had a fight in college and when Bulma found that she was pregnant she flew down to see him. Unfortunatily she found him with another girl.
It would be like Bulma to blow the situation out of proportion. Not to mention her pregnancy hormones and selfish pride. She was going to raise her baby independently. No "cheating" man who didn't want a kid in the first place.
Of coarse Bulma soon began to question her not telling him. But she had remained solid and Juu knew that Bulma's ex hadn't a clue that he was a father.
"Juu!" ChiChi exclaimed as she opened the front door and let the blonde woman into the quaint house.
Juu smiled as she took in the smells of breakfast floating from the kitchen, and the sound of masculine laughter.
A short man in boxer shorts and a T-shirt walked into the living room where Juu was standing, unaware that the pretty blonde woman was there, and smiled at ChiChi, "Hey, Chi, I left my toothpaste at the hotel -- do you have any I can borrow."
ChiChi smiled and wiped her hands off on her apron, "Yeah Krillin, there's some in the bathroom. Oh, it's ceinamin though, that alright?"
"Yeah." The bald man said with a smile, "That's fine."
"Oh." ChiChi said, a grin forming on her pretty yet makeup-less face as she watched Juu study Krillin, "Krillin, this is Juu. Juu, this is Krillin."
Krillin, noticing Juu for the first time, smiled at the well-dressed attractive female, "Hey."
Juu smiled back at him, "Hey."
Krillin laughed, "I'd talk longer, but... I've gotta brush my teeth."
Juu nodded, the smile fading from her face.
ChiChi watched the two with amused eyes and then cleared her throat, "Trunks. Trunks! Juu's here."
The purple haired boy ran from the kitchen and smiled happily at the blonde woman, "Juu! Hey! Where's momma?"
Juu smiled down at the boy, "Business."
"Oh." The boy spoke, almost sadly.
"But she'll be back by the time we're home." Juu added, cheerfully.
Krillin smiled, "Bye Trunks."
Trunks smiled back at Krillin and laughed, "Bye Krillin!" He turned to Juu, "He's really funny. Oh! You have to meet Vegeta. Vegeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeta!" The boy shouted the last part.
Juu watched as a breathtakingly handsome man with dark features, piercing eyes, and a daring hairdo that swept into a flame from a deep widow's peak entered the room and glared down at Trunks, "What?"
"This." The boy smiled merrily, "Is Juu. She's my momma's friend."
Vegeta's facial expression remained bored and his facial muscles didn't budge, "That's nice."
Trunks smiled back at the boy, Juu could tell that he was quite taken with the man. She frowned though, he was a hard-ass. Just the sort of rugged, burly, arrogant business brute would crush on.
"Alright Trunks, go get your stuff."
ChiChi smiled, seeing that Krillin was still in the room.
"Nice to meet you, Juu."
"Nice to meet you too, Krillin."
She drew a heart in the sand with her toes as she listened to Leah talk excitidly about the mysterious surfer she had met, and flirted with.
Launch smiled, "I'm proud of you, Lee."
Leah shrugged and smiled at Launch, "So, how was your date with your old friend."
Launch continued to study the ground, but nodded slightly, "It was good. We had a lot to catch up on. I've missed him."
Leah smiled, "I'll have to meet him. Hey -- Launch, can we stop by that little resteraunt down a bit? I heard that their drinks are wonderful."
Launch's eyes lit up, "Oh! The cute ones with the little umprellas in them?"
Leah laughed, "Yeah. Those are the ones."
After a few moments of silence Launch smiled, "Oh! Leah, my friends from high school are getting married and their weddings in about week. It's in Tulsa, bland, I know. But anyway, you should come. Chi said that I could bring some people, mostly a date, haha, but you'll have fun."
Leah smiled, "Sure! Wait.. are you taking chip?"
Launch frowned. She had been dating Chip, the attorney with the ranch slash business-suited wannabe cow boy off and on, mostly off, for nearly seven years now. And when she was with him, she was mostly miserable. But it was safe. She didn't have to date other people. And when they split, he saw other people, but was always asking her back out as a safety net. It was their system. They used one another. They weren't happy. But they each believed that it was better than the alternatives.
"He doesn't know about it." Launch said simply, "And I don't plan on telling him about it."
Trunks hoped into his mother's silver Lexus with a wide smile on his face, and his baseball glove in his arms.She was taking him to little-league baseball game and he was dressed in baseball uniform and his ball cap.
Bulma smiled at him from her rearview mirror as he backed out of the driveway, "You're going to do great hunny."
Trunks beamed from the passengers seat as he buckled his seatbelt, "I hope so. Vegeta said that I was strong and quick."
Bulma blinked suddenly and cast her son a confused glance, "Vegeta?"
"Yeah." Trunks said, playing with his baseball mitt, "He's a friend of Goku's. He helped my train last night and stuff. He's really cool."
Bulma smiled meekly and nodded, "Yeah?"
Trunks continued to finger the soft material of the glove, "Yeah. He liked my training style and said I was a cute kid."
"Cute?" Bulma laughed, "Well you are a cute kid, Trunks."
The purple haired boy frowned from behind his oversized hat, "I'm not cute, momma. I'm tough. Just like Vegeta."
Bulma nodded and turned her attention back to the red light that was just switching to green, "Yeah. Just like Vegeta."The small post office, dotted with small metal mailboxes all stacked on top of one another, some were bent in, it was grungy looking place with loiterers and people rushing in to check their mail.
Yamcha leant against the wall as he opened his mailbox casually, twisting the key and then swinging the metal door, traced with graffiti, open and sighed as he pulled out a stack of envelops and slammed the box shut.
He flipped through a pile of bills and then stopped as he eyed an invitation. He tore it open and smiled as he read that it was an invitation for ChiChi and Goku's renewing their vowels. He was asked to be a groomsmen. He smiled at the thought of being with his friends again.
But a frown quickly spread across his physique as he pictured Marron standing there, all dressed up with her arm looped around some rich older man.
He crammed the invitation in his coat pocket and discarded the bills in the trashcan on his way out of the post office.
The wedding planner nodded thoughtfully at ChiChi as she laid out a stack of books that was labeled 'Wedding Flowers.'
The wedding planner nodded again, "Alright -- we'll I really like this one, it's a bouquet of white, pink, red, and maroon roses. And I ordered extra so that the aisle will be a long stretch of petals from these flowers."
ChiChi smiled, "Wow. That sounds great."
The wedding planner smiled and nodded, "Your bridesmaid dresses should be here in about three days, the pink, red, and maroon dresses that you ordered. That away each of the dresses with correspond with the flower, and the groomsmen will each wear a flower of the bridesmaid's dress color that they walk down the aisle."
ChiChi smiled, knowing that Vegeta was walking Bulma down the aisle and Bulma's dress was a pastel pink. She frowned at the thought of Vegeta throwing a fit over having to wear pink, and then the fit he would put out when he found that he had to lock arms with Bulma and smile as the ascended to the alter.
Then ChiChi sighed, she wasn't sure what she was thinking pairing Bulma with Vegeta, Marron with Yamcha, Launch with Tien.
Well, she partly knew. She wanted her friends to come back together. A nearly impossible task, but it was her special day, so who knew?
Nearly a week had passed and Bulma and Juu were now boarding their plane for Denver.
Bulma was rummaging through her purse for a stick of gum and Juu was looking over their schedule for their meeting.
"We'll arrive at about noon, and since the meeting is at one thirty, we'll have about and hour and a half to get our bags, a taxi, and get to the Iselin."
Bulma frowned lightly, popping a stick of gum in her mouth, "Iselin?"
"Yeah." Juu said, not looking up from her palm pilot, "That's where your meeting is. Mr. Iselin, he's a major shareholder of Capsule Corps, he's selling his stocks back to you, and you're negotiating the procedures for a possible merge, he's retiring and trusts your company."
Bulma nodded and offered Juu a piece of gum, "And we'll be back to airport, when?"
Juu smiled, "We'll be back sometime before nine."
Bulma smiled back at Juu as they took their seats in first class on the plane and Bulma smiled, "Good. Chi's wedding is in three days and I would hate to spend anymore time away from her. She'd freak."
Juu laughed with a small nod, "Yeah, haha, you're probably right."
Launch sighed as she made her way into the shoe store, momentarily blinking as she saw her boyfriend, Chip, rise from a small bench and smile in her direction.
"Hey! Launch!"
She frowned lightly and blinked at the tall buisness man, "Ha-hey, Chip."
He hugged her, she stiffened a bit, and when he pulled away he handed her a CD.
She glanced down at it and faked a small smile, "Oh, Toby Keith. Wow. You shouldn't have."
She meant it, too. She hated country music.
He laughed, "I know, but I missed you, so I dropped by to say hey and bring you a gift."
She laughed and shook her head, "Wow. Well, thanks."
ChiChi pulled the dress from her closet and the wedding planner smiled at it, "Wow, it's as beautiful as the pictures."
ChiChi smiled, "Yeah, I love it. When I saw it in that bridal shop last year, I knew that I had to have it."
The wedding planner glanced down at her notebook, "Alright, well picking out the cake is the next thing."
Chichi giggled, "Well, that's the one thing Goku was interested in helping with."
Tien lay in the bed beside Julie, the lights were off and they were just talking since neither was tired.
"You know, Toby Keith is going to be in Tulsa when we are there for your friend's wedding."
Tien frowned slightly as he stared at the ceiling, he didn't care for country music, though his red-haired girlfriend was crazy about it.
"Tell me about Launch."
Tien blinked with a small frown, "What?"
"Yeah." Julie said, lightly, "I bet she's pretty."
Tien shrugged, "She's attractive, yes."
Julie smiled, "I could write a novel about this."
Tien frowned, he hated when she got in her romance novel mode. She would always try to include her real-life situations in her books.
"There's this poor woman who falls for this rich, handsome man. They are together, but she doesn't know that her fiance is having a secret affair with his attractive ex mistress."
Tien rolled his eyes, "I'm not your fiancee."
She frowned, rolling away from him so that he could only see her red hair shining from the moonlight reflecting from the window, "Oh, but you can have an affair?"
He laughed lightly and rolled his eyes, "I'll see if I can find any Keith Urban tickets tomorrow at work."
Julie sighed, "It's Toby Keith, Tien."
Bulma and Juu exited the buisness meeting and waited for a cab outside the skyscraper they had just attended a board meeting in.
Bulma hailed a cab while Juu pulled her scarf closer to her neck, "It's going to snow, Bee."
Bulma turned her attention to the sky as she opened the yellow taxi door and let Juu in, "Nah, it's just a little cold."
Juu shrugged as she hoped into the taxi and told the driver their destination was the airport.
Bulma kept her focus outside the window and watched as snow began to drift from the sky, slowly at first. By the time the girls had reached the airport, their was nearly three inches of snow and the Taxi driver warned them that they might think of getting a room, for their plane might not be leaving tonight.
Vegeta growled as his in-flight movie stopped abruptly and the seatbelt sign flipped on.
Krillin glanced at his business partner from his cushiony first-class seat and frowned, "What's going on, Vegeta?"
The two were on a flight from Tulsa to Denver, and they were only about an hour into their flight when the seatbelt line flashed on.
A flight attendant came across the speaker with a high, smooth, and pleasant voice, "I regret to inform each of the passengers aboard American Airlines, but due to inclement weather we will be taking an emergency landing at a nearby airport."
There was a murmur of complaints through the cockpit, and an overly pissed expression on Vegeta's face.
"We will be back in the air once the weather clears up, and I apologize for the delay. This is a matter of safety, and we make it our duty to put safety first. We know that you have choice when flying, and we thank you for choosing American. When the conditions are safe to land in Michigan, you will be granted a flight then. Until that time, and it will be as short as possible, we hope that you each enjoy your accommodations at the Denver airport."
Krillin frowned, clearly terrified, "Inclement weather?"
Vegeta frowned, "Fucking snow."
Krillin's frown deepened, "And what are we supposed to do in Denver?"
Vegeta laid his head back in his seat and shut his eyes, "Hell if I know."
Well... that seemed like a fine place to end.
Haha. Hm. Now who's stuck in Denver? ChiChi's planning her last minute wedding. Launch and Tien are stuck in country music-obsessed relationships. And Marron and Yamcha are on opposite sides of the country. Trust me, the next chapter will be better.
I really hope that you guys are still reading, please, please remember to review -- and I, of coarse, will remember to update!
I would like to thank Trina Monkey for the inspiration. Her update of her story "Business and Pleasure" made me get up and update quicker. And, of coarse, each of your reviews helped me to write this chapter! I hope that you liked and I hear from you again!
Thanks!
Haha. And while your waiting here's some pretty amazing fics you can read. ((and review, too, of coarse))
m
Scrambled Thoughts fic The Fast and the Furious
ficPadoora001s' You Stole the Rain, Something to Live and Die for, A Better Life, and My Name Is.
s' , and .Sayain Passion's fics Love at First Sight and This Summer.
's fics and .And DeathlyQuiet's fic When We Were Gods.
They're all wonderful. Trust me.
((if the links don't work, and has a habbit of doing so... then you can find the links under my "fav stories" thing))
Thanks again!
Crimson--